Israel has drawn up plans for strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities with bunker busting bombs supplied by the US, but analysts say it has no intention of carrying them through while diplomatic pressure is growing on Tehran. Israel regards Tehran as the single greatest threat, a view sharpened by the Iranian president's call for the destruction of the Jewish state and his denial of the Holocaust. Last month Binyamin Netanyahu, the former prime minister and leader of the Likud party, said that if he wins the general election in March he would follow the example of former prime minister Menachem Begin who ordered the Israeli air force bombing of Iraq's nuclear plant in 1981. "The Iranian threat is an existential one. In this regard I will continue the legacy of Menachem Begin, who thwarted Iran's neighbour, Iraq, from acquiring nuclear weapons by adopting bold and daring measures. ... http://www.guardian.co.uk

U.S. doctors should stop using two medicines to treat this season's influenza because the dominant strain has become resistant to the drugs and they are unlikely to work, health officials said on Saturday. The alert about antiviral pills amantadine and rimantadine applies to the seasonal influenza, not the H5N1 avian flu strain that experts fear could mutate and cause a global pandemic. Tests of 120 samples of the H3N2 flu strain — the major one causing flu illness in the United States — showed it was resistant to amantadine and rimantadine in 91 percent of cases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Julie Gerberding said. Only 11 percent of cases were resistant to the two drugs during the last flu season. "Physicians should not use amantadine and rimantadine to prevent flu or to treat patients suspected of having influenza because the drugs will not be effective," Gerberding said at a news conference. ...http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1506364

A reportedly suicidal teenager who was shot by police while brandishing a pellet gun in his middle school has died of his injuries, his family's spokeswoman said Saturday. Kelly Swofford, a neighbor who had been with the family all morning, stood outside their home and confirmed that 15-year-old Christopher Penley had died. "They want to donate his organs because that is what Chris would want," Swofford said. "The family is devastated, just devastated." Penley, of Winter Springs, was accused of pulling the pellet gun in a classroom Friday and pointing it at other students before forcing one into a closet, then leading deputies and SWAT team members on a chase that ended in a school bathroom. ...http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1506400&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312

The FBI anticipates performing DNA tests on the victims of a purported CIA airstrike in Pakistan that apparently targeted al-Qaeda's second-in-command, a law enforcement official said Saturday.At least 17 people were killed in the airstrike on Damadola, near the Afghan border. Senior Pakistani officials told The Associated Press that the CIA acted on erroneous information in launching the attack early Friday, and that Ayman al-Zawahri was not among the dead.In Washington, Pentagon, State Department, National Security Council and intelligence officials did not immediately provide additional details about the attack....http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-01-14-airstrike-dna-tests_x.htm?csp=34

Soldiers exposed to Iraq's increasingly lethal roadside bombs, which can rip through armored Humvees, are drawing on wartime experience and stateside expertise to protect their vehicles with stronger armor and thermal detection cameras.The upgrades are being done by individual soldiers and units as the Pentagon decides how Humvees should be changed, and follow public criticism of the Bush administration for not armoring all Humvees ahead of the war.Nearly three years after rolling into Iraq in trucks covered in many instances only by canvas roofs, the 101st Airborne Division's 3rd Brigade is adding extra layers of armor to its Humvees.Col. Michael Steele, the brigade's commander, said he ordered the improvements because the insurgents' roadside bombs -- known to the military as "improvised explosive devices" -- have become bigger and harder to detect....http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/01/14/iraq.humvees.ap/index.html?section=cnn_world

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said his nation has no intention of building nuclear weapons amid rising international concern that its uranium enrichment research is a front for developing atomic bombs. ``Our nation doesn't need nuclear weapons,'' Ahmadinejad said in a televised press conference in Tehran today broadcast by international networks including CNN. ``You can use nuclear technology in several ways, and we want to do so peacefully.'' His comments came a day after U.S. President George W. Bush urged the United Nations Security Council to help persuade Iran to drop its nuclear power program that hinges on the enrichment of uranium, a technology that can also be used to build weapons. ...http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=aqldxQnBsIuk&refer=home